It has been 6 years since the GRAMMY-nominated artist Somi Kakoma released a collection of original songs, as she spent that time immersed in theater and multidisciplinary performance. Now returning to her first love, songwriting/singing, she looks inward on the lush What Does It Take to Bloom?, a multitiered effort rooted in jazz, Ghana-based highlife, and theatrical grandeur. Co-producing with Benjamin James (The Cavemen), Somi’s musical journey is a globe-trotting, multi-cultural affair. The album was written and recorded in various locations (Dakar, Lagos, Paris, and New York), but it has a thematic musical/lyrical theme running through it as Kakoma searches for stability and internal meaning in a fractured world.
Opening with three jazz-based efforts, Somi…